1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a manufacturing method of an optical waveguide device for widespread use in optical communications, optical information processing and other general optics, an optical waveguide device obtained thereby, and an optical waveguide connecting structure used for the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an optical waveguide device achieves optical coupling by causing an optical waveguide to propagate a light beam emitted from a light-emitting element or causing a light-receiving element to receive a light beam propagated by the optical waveguide. For the coupling, it is important to set their optical axes coaxially, and high positioning accuracy is required.
For example, there has been proposed a connector in which a light-receiving and light-emitting element mounted in precise alignment with a positioning plate and a three-dimensional optical path component (containing an optical waveguide) precisely aligned with the positioning plate by the fitting engagement between a protrusion and a recess are combined with each other, whereby the light-receiving and light-emitting element and the optical waveguide are aligned with each other with high accuracy (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No-2006-309113).
However, this connector requires the two steps of: initially precisely aligning the light-receiving and light-emitting element with the positioning plate, and then precisely assembling the three-dimensional optical path component relative to the positioning plate. This presents the problem of requiring cumbersome and complicated labor and time which results in poor production efficiency. Further, not only high machining accuracy is required for the positioning plate and the three-dimensional optical path component, but also the assembly accuracy of the positioning plate and the three-dimensional optical path component is important. Thus, there arises another problem in that it is not easy to adjust the accuracies.